Property Description

Three-bedroom Sea-view Villa in Sicily’s Northern Palermo Region, with Panoramic Roof Terrace

A characterful sea-view villa in Sicily’s Palermo region, Villa Elio stands just over a kilometre inland in the heart of northern Sicily. The spacious interior needs some redecoration, but the bones of the structure are in great shape, and you’ll find plenty of living space indoors and out.

Built in the 1980s in a classic Sicilian style it offers a perfect vantage point from its flat roof. Around this, sloping sections of traditional curved terracotta tile, cover a deep veranda which connects directly to the kitchen and living room. In total you will find about 120 m2 of indoor space, plus the terraces, veranda and cellar.

The full-size roof terrace offers over a hundred square metres of sea-view space to eat, socialise or just relax in the sunshine. From here you can overlook surroundings which are impressively rural and green for a spot which is just 400m outside the nearest built-up area. At your back is Monte San Michele, the first in a chain of hills which develop inland to become the beautiful nature reserve of the Pizzo Cane and Pizzo Trigna.The nearest town, Altavilla Milicia, is a storied coastal community with roots in the eleventh century. On the road from Palermo to Messina, it’s perfectly positioned for a buyer who wants the feeling of living in nature without sacrificing proximity to beaches or infrastructure.

The Property

Built up a little above its gently sloping grounds, the sea-view villa in Sicily’s north coastal region is fundamentally a bungalow, but one whose ground floor has been raised a couple of metres. This allows for a 20m2 basement storeroom on the lower side of the hill.

The bottom half of the structure has the masonry exposed, and the upper half has been covered in smooth sandy-coloured plaster. A double front door and wrought iron railings as well as round arches around the veranda give a timeless feel to this relatively modern property.

Three well-sized double bedrooms open off a central hallway, with windows to the north, west and south respectively. At the end of the passage are a pair of bathrooms, one of which has a tub.

The living room is well over 20m2, with French windows opening onto the veranda and more light coming from a window facing the road. The kitchen, too, has a dual exposition and connects to the veranda, making this the perfect space to eat outdoors in the long stretch of eight or nine warm months. While there is no designated dining room you would easily be able to fit a table and chairs in at one end of the living room for the short winters, if you want to move full-time to Sicily and make Villa Elio your main residence.

Outside, an external staircase leads up to the roof terrace. The villa is surrounded by large tarmac driveway, and around the edges of the plot you will find lemon, olive, medlar, fig and orange trees.It is connected to the municipal power grid, while water is provided by a private local operator. You will benefit from a cistern which holds roughly 20 thousand litres, giving you the guarantee of a month or more of supply at all times.

Surroundings

Villa Elio stands on a quiet road 400m outside the town. In good condition, this route has the unusual juxtaposition of fir trees lining one side and prickly pears the other. The short trip downhill brings you past a lovely olive grove. Further uphill is the start of Monte San Michele. A famous cave, the Grotta Mazzamutto, is at the foot of this mountain just over a kilometre away.

Altavilla Milicia itself is 4km up the road to the west, and the little village of San Nicola l’Arena a similar distance to the east. This area, known as Torre Colonna after one of the historic watchtowers that dot the coast, is mostly residential until you come to the seafront, which is a couple of kilometres away. If you fancy the exercise it’s walkable in half an hour.

Popular local beach clubs including Lido Sporting and La Capannina are found within a five minute drive of Villa Elio, and there is public beach to be found further along the coast, too. You can still visit the Torre delle Mandre, a dramatic and well-preserved sixteenth century fort, on a little promontory which sticks out into the Gulf of Termini Imerese.

A ten minute drive will take you to the biggest city in the immediate area, Bagheria, and the peninsula of Capo Zafferano. Filled with beautiful fishing villages and varied coastline this is one of our favourite areas of Sicily. In the other direction, you can spend many happy days discovering charms of the legandary beach town, Cefalù and the hills of the Madonie Park, just three quarters of an hour away.

It is a 20 minute drive to the outskirts of Sicily’s fabulous capital city Palermo and 45 to the nearest airport. Alternatively you’re well positioned to join the A19 motorway which cuts across the centre of Sicily. On this route, the island’s other major airport in Catania is only two hours away.

Potential

As you will see from our photos and virtual tour, there is a lot of work to be done on Villa Elio, but most of it is on a fairly cosmetic level.

The only exceptions to this are that it will be a priority to rewire the property, in order to make it compliant with modern regulations, and also to add waterproofing to the terrace on the roof. You will need to budget around €18-20,000 for this important work.

Beyond that, we would change the single-glazed windows, and put in some more energy efficient contemporary fittings. At the same time you will probably want to install new shutters.
There is no heating on the property, but a good quality heat pump system would deliver both warmth in winter and air conditioning in summer at a cost of about €1,000 per unit.

The floor tiles are too old to feel current, but not old enough to be antique, and the patterns on the kitchen and bathroom walls could use a refresh too. As it will clearly be necessary to open up walls and take off some tiles for the electrical work, we would look to lay a new floor in either ceramic tile or parquet, and update the bathroom while installing a new kitchen.
Lastly – and this will depend on your attitude to gardening – there is a lot of tarmac outside. It might be nice to remove some of that and add a bit more vegetation. You’ll be surprised at how much hardy plant life can thrive in this warm, dry climate.

For under €200,000, you could have a superb three-bedroom, sea view villa in Sicily’s lovely countryside, as good as new. If you would like any help with finding reliable tradespeople or professionals, or even our post-sale project management services, please don’t hesitate to ask us for more information.